Frequency modulation distance indicator



Jan. 18, 1949.

R. s. SHANKWEILER ET AL FREQUENCY MODULATION DIS ANCE INDICATOR Filed June 23, 1945 m m w 7 WWW j 9 Wm m Z M WW m 0 1 m M. m w T 2 UNIT 1 STATES" PATENT ,or-F c I 2,459, 46: T

FREQUENCY monnna'ri'ou nis nmcn mmcn'ron 1 nay G. Shankweiler, Cranbury, and Daniel B itz,

Princeton,- N. J.,- assignors to' Radio Corporation of America, a corporation oi. Delaware Application June 23, 19st, Serial No.'60'1,128

3 Claims. (01.343-14) This venion relates to distance measuring signals transmitted and received in the operadvicesfirch as absolute altimeters, and more tion of the system of Figurei when the distance -'particularly to improvements in systems which being measured remains constant,

ti of frequency modulated Figure 3 is a graph of the frequency of the beat 21 3:}: by eflec on r 5 signal derived from the signals of Figure 2; I Frequency modulation ialtimeters are 'well' Figure 4 is a graph showing the frequencies escribed in Bentley Patent of signals transmitted and received in the oper- I e??? in Espenschied-Patent 2,045,071 ation of the system of Figure 1 when the dis- In these systems a frequency. modulated signal I tance being measured is decreasing, and

' is radiated to the surface or, object whose disto Figure 5 is a graph of the. frequency of the tance is to be measured. In a receiver located beat signal derived from the signals of Figure 4. near thepoint of radiation, the reflected signal Referring toFigure 1, a radio transmitter l is picked up and mixed or heterodyned with is provided with an antenna 3 and a frequency some of the frequency modulated signal received modulator 5. The modulator 5 may be a reactdirectly from the transmitter. The average ire- 1d ance tube circuit, an electrically driven vibratory quency of the resulting beat signal is det rmined variable capacitor such as that described in apby the time required for the radiated signal to cat on Serial No. 47 3. ed Ja a 9 3 reach the reflecting object and return to the by Sydney V- Perry n entitled ti' mO receiver, and is directly proportion to the disla cr unit. o y kn eans or cyc ically tance. The beat signal is applied to a frequency r n the e y-cf th transmitter l in a li t d in units 0f 11 predetermined manner as described hereinafter. igmfw indicator ca In the present illustration, the modulator 51s s The indicator usually includes a cycle counter f the yp Which v r s t nin in accordance circuitand a direct current meter, but may com- With an pp v l c- The modulator is prise a frequency responsive servo system such 35 connected to a modulation genera r slgned as that shown in Guanella Patent 2,268,587. to Produce an Output f Sawtooth Wave form,

In any case, the indicator system will xhibit cyclically increasing linearly at a relatively low a substantially unavoidable time lag owing to rate and dccrcasinsat a m h higher rate.

' 1 am in of t s A receiver 9, tuned to respond to signals pro- 333 33 12? 12 ;3 223; t 1)rev engun5teady r duced by the transmitter I, is provided with an erratic indication antenna l l and is also coupled directly to the Thi tim lag causes no djfliculty as long as t transmitter I by .a line l3. The output circuit distance being measured is constant, or chang- 0f the .receiver 9 is ccuplcd to a f q ency reing slowly. However, when the distance i sponsive indicator system including a. cycle cou'ncreasing, or decreasing, the indication will diifer circuit and a 1147- meter In df true distane by an amount t where ance with usual design practice, the addio fretis the time lag andvis the rate of change of disd y sp a a istic of th rec iver 9 tance. Under conditions or rapidly changing is made to cut p y at a relatively hi distance, this error may become undesirably audio fr q y. denoted hereinafter a Jc- Th large, 40 is done to prevent spurious high frequency sig- Reference is ,made to copending application nals such as noise from operating the indicator, .Serial Number 596,692, filed May 30, 1945 by and serves an additional purpose in the practice DanielBlitzand entitled Radio devices, which of the pr s nt nv ntion. The iv r 9 may describes and claims methods of' and means for a o in ude a a pl t de limiter as is comma compensating said error. in systems ofthe described type. a The object of the present invention is to pro- 1 The adjustment and operation of the-described 'vide improved methods of and means for comsystem is as follows:' Thefltransmitter 1 pro;- pensatingindicator time lags in systems of the duces a high frequency signal which is varied described type. cyclically in frequency by the modulator 5 and The invention will be described with reference modulation generator I, in the manner illusto the accompanying drawing, in which: v trated by the solid line 2M of Figure 2. The

' Figure lfis a schematic blockv diagram of 9. average frequency is 10 and the instantaneous frequency modulation distance measuring sysfrequency increases linearly from a lower value tem embodying the present invention, 11 to an upper value 12, then decreases substan--.

. Figure 2 is a graph showing the frequencies of 5 tially instantaneously from f: to f1. This is 'rel w l] V 1 vpeatecl at the rate of In times per second, where In is the frequency of the modulation generator 1. A small part of the output of the transmitter l is applied directly to the receiver 8 through the line It. The major portionof the trammitter output is radiated'by the antenna 3. Some ofthe .radiated energy-strike the object (not shown) whose. distance is to be'determined. and is reflected backto.the' receiver antenna ll. The

'timeTnrequiredforasignaltogofromtheantenna l to the reflecting object and back to the antenna ll 18 1 where Dis the distance'of'the object from the antennas I and II, and c is the velocity of wave propagation. During aperiod of length To, the transmitter differs from that of; the transmitted signal by the amount 7 The frequency of the received signal varles cyclically as shown by the dash line 203 in Figure 2.

The direct and reflected signals are applied from the antenna I I and the line l3 respectively to the receiver 9, where they. are combined and detectedto produce a beat signal of a frequency equal to the difference in frequency of the two signals. The frequency of the beat signal is illustrated by the graph of Figure 3, and is proportional to the distance except during the periods when a cycle of the transmitted frequency variation overlaps a different cycle of it uency variation of the reflected signal. It is e ident that these periods are of length To. In, a t ical as the distance remains 'conthe frequency when the distance is decreasing,

and vice versa.

system the maximum value of TD is of the order of ten microseconds, while the length' of each modulation cycle,

f is of the order of .01 second, During the overlap periods, the transmitted frequency is near its minimum value ii, and the received frequency is near its maximum value 1:. The beat frequency is therefore only slightly less ;han fi'-,fi. Thisdiflerence is ordinarily of the )rder' of several-'megacycles. and is very much iigher than the high frequency cutoff is of the 'eceiver, or the beat frequency corresponding to ;he maximum range of the equipment. Thus the rutput of the receiver 9 comprises onlyavoltage if the beat frequency proportional to distance, nterrupted at'intervals of .l or periods of To.

in frequency,

magnitude .to the average frequency of the applied beat signal, which is substantially roportional to the distance D; This output deflects the meter If in accordance with the distance D.

where I isthe indicated distance, and k is a cu emcient including the sensitivities of the counter,

circuit l5 and themeter I1.

Throughout the above description it has assumedthat D remains substantially constant, and consequently that the frequency of the input to the indicator system is constant. Now sup.- pose that the input to the indicator is changing increase in distance of V feet/sec. The diltance indication I will increase but the response to each will be delayed by a time This effect tends to iiiohe'theindicator read highn I when the 'distance-is'decreasing, and low ,when' Doppler effect causes ach'ange in the frequency of the reflected signal, of fo cycles per second. This Doppler shift increases Referring to Figure 4, the frequency of the radiated signal-is shown by the solidiline lll, similar to the line 2M of Figure 2. The distance is decreasing at the rate V. The frequency of the received reflection signal is shown by the dashline 403. The variations-in frequency of the.

received signal are delayed with respect to those of the transmitted signal bythe time'ln, as under the conditions of Figure. 2. i However, the

instantaneous frequency of the received-signal conditionsof Figure '2,

is greater than under the by the amount The resulting beat frequency isflower, for in given distance, than it would be ifthe distance i were not decreasing. Thus the Doppler effect tends to make the indicator read low when the distance is decreasing, and high when the dis-' tance is increasing.

Considering both the Doppler efle'ct indicator lag, the indicated distance is:

By making (ft-10f... the last two termscancel out and miti ationsubstantially independently of the. rate of change Vof distance. a

ataratewhichcorrespondstoanl increment in frequency it. As long as the fre-" quency continues to change, the indication will differ-from that corresponding to the actual frequency by the amount i and the v in some cases to make band .width fa-fn. Since some of the above factors are ordinarily determined in accordance with other considerations, it may be impractical f2 fl)f m as small as tn. In this event the magnitude of ti. may be increased by any of various well known means as by increasing the electrical or mechanical damping of the meter I! or providing a time delay network in the connections between the counter circuit 15 and the meter IL The invention'has been described as an improved distance measuring system of the frequency modulation type, wherein the eflectsof lag in the response of the indicator system are compensated by utilizing the Doppler effect. The frequency of the transmitter is varied in sawtooth fashion, increasing at a constant rate and decreasing substantially instantaneouslyat a much higher rate. This causes the beat frequency to be outside the pass band of the receiver except when both thedirect and reflected signals a are increasing in frequency, and the Doppler shift in the received frequency is such as to cause anticipation of the true distance indication. The

Doppler anticipation and the indicator lag are made equalto provide true indication of distance independently of the rate of change of distance.

' We claim as our invention:

1. A distance 'measuring system including means fortransmitting a high-frequency signal to an object whose distance is to be measured, means for varying cyclically the frequency of frequency of said signal both as transmitted and after reflection, a frequency responsive indicator having a time lag in, and means for applying said beat signal to said indicator, wherein 2. In a radio distance measuring system of the frequency modulation type including transmitter means, frequency modulator means connected to said transmitter, receiver means, and beat froquency responsive indicator means connected to said receiver means, wherein said indicator means has a characteristic time lag t1, in its response to changes in the frequency of the output of said receiver means, the method ofcompensating said time lag including the steps of adjusting the mean frequency of operation of said transmitter to a frequency in, and cyclically and alternately increasing the frequency of operation of said transmitter linearly with respect to time through a frequency range [2-41 about said mean frequency it at a rate of fm (fa-f1) cycles per second per second and decreasing said frequency of operation through said range fs-fi at a much higher rate, where fm(f2 'fl) L 3. A distance measuring system including a transmitter, a receiver near said transmitter and responsive to signals produced by said transmitter and reflected by an object whose distance is to be measured to produce a beat voltage output of a frequency equal to the instantaneous differ-- sive-indicator means connected to said receiver 1 and having a characteristic time lag in in its a mean value In from one value if to a higher value f2 at a rate of change of frequency (fa-f1) fit, and from said higher value is to said lower value ii at a much higher rate of-chang and - aria-71%;

wherein D is the maximum distance required to be measured, and c is the velocity of radiation propagation.

RAY G.-SHANKWEILER. DANIEL BLITZ;

narnaaucas orrnn The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STA'I'EQ PATENTS Number 2,281,272 2,303,214

Labin at .al. Nov.,24, 1942 1 

